Social Justice Collaboration Grants

Supporting Cross-Issue and Cross-Geography Coalitions

To create the kind of high-impact progressive change we envision, the Funding Exchange (FEX) will make grants to organizations that work with and through other groups and individuals to create more impact than they ever could have achieved alone. The focus being, not so much, on building large infrastructures, but rather on building a strong organization and then focusing energies externally to catalyze large-scale change.

Regardless of whether they have formal or informal affiliates, progressive social change can happen if organizations help to build their respective fields through collaboration rather than competition by:

• Sharing financial resources and helping other nonprofits to succeed at fundraising;
• Giving away their model and proprietary information in an open-source approach;
• Cultivating leadership and talent for their larger network, rather than hoarding the best people;
• Working in coalitions to influence legislation or conduct grassroots advocacy campaigns, without worrying too much about which organization gets the credit.

Collaborative nonprofits recognize that they are more powerful together than alone, and that large-scale social change often requires collaborative, collective action.

Providing funding to help create these collaboratives is a concrete part of FEX’s strategy for supporting progressive movement building.

Applicants for this funding will have pre-identified collaboration partners; each of which sign on to the application, its activities and goals. Funding will be used to work through the issues related to a long-lasting collaboration, and will not be granted for short-term campaign-driven collaborations.